Sorry, We’re Closed. Summer Staff Shortage.

Summer Staff Shortage: Some Tourism operators face temporary shutdown.

This was an average of about 18 staff per employer in the sector.

While survey respondents may have been the region’s larger employers, staffing numbers traditionally ballooned in hospitality over the summer months and the region was still falling short on its ability to fill vacancies, Harvest Talent Recruitment and People Solutions, which conducted the Geelong HR index, said.

Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine executive director Brett Ince said many operators in Geelong and coastal areas might need to close for days to rest staff.

He said previously when they had been able to have full staff they would have been able to operate seven days a week.

He said the biggest challenge this sector listed, as with many others, was lack of supply.

Harvest said another factor that was more prominent for this sector than others surveyed was the lack of interest in the industry or discipline.

Traditionally, retail and hospitality work was a rite of passage for students and overseas visitors, but Covid years had seen teenagers and young adults opting out of unsavoury work hours and weekend work and, now the world has opened up, many were leaving the country, taking gap years or making the most of an overseas working holiday, Harvest said.

Harvest Talent Recruitment and People Solutions director Maree Herath said this was the time when many businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector ramped up.

“However, without the people to provide the service these traders simply won’t be able to provide full services for holiday-makers,” she said.

Harvest said reliance on international workers had evaporated.

The survey queried the region’s employers on what needed to be done to assist with a region-wide talent-attraction strategy and majority listed accommodation and affordable housing as a gap that needed urgent attention.

Mr Ince said many businesses were looking at enticing mature workers, and also targeting school leavers and encouraging opportunities for backpackers.

“The other side of it is tax policy – how do we look at new opportunities to entice people who might be looking for a second job,” he said.

Deb Nash, business manager at Truffleduck, has voiced support for a region-wide talent-attraction strategy.

She said hospitality sector operators needed to support each other in attracting talent.

Findings from the 2022 Geelong HR Index will be discussed at a business breakfast on Wednesday 5 October, 2022.

As appeared in the Geelong Advertiser.